Chapter 5
A huge explosion occurred on the outskirts of the city, causing a huge wave of magical power to spread out. Its destruction was terrifying, almost wiping out everything in the surrounding area. Even though the distance was far, the high-level mages in the royal palace could sense the magical power fluctuations there. They looked at each other almost at the same time as if they wanted to confirm each other's thoughts.
"Quickly tell the prince. At the same time, activate the teleportation matrix!"
One of the high-level mages immediately gave the order, no one objected to his opinion. They knew that the current situation was urgent and Prince Wise was extremely impatient.
In no time, the teleportation matrix was prepared. Wise led Lycaon's group, an elite army, and half of the high-level mages. They teleported to the place where the explosion occurred. Since they knew exactly where the source of the magical power was, the teleportation matrix was very accurate.
Anyone who witnessed the explosion was surprised. The explosion had blown away half of the forest on the outskirts, some trees were still burning, creating tall, large columns of black smoke. They kept billowing up, the smell of burning mixed with the air. In the midst of the fire, they could vaguely see charred corpses, with unclear shapes, all lying in a curled up position. Perhaps they had died in the fire while sleeping.
And among those charred corpses, there was a person standing. The cloak that person was wearing was fluttering in the wind.
"Harumasa!"
Wise shouted loudly, rushing over. The high-level mages seemed to have realized something, and hastily activated magic to create a protective barrier. When Wise just got close, he was blown away by the wind magic, but thanks to the protective barrier, he was fine.
Harumasa stood there, his right eye had turned blue, as if glowing in the dark and extremely prominent. It seemed that he did not realize that he had just unconsciously attacked Wise. Because Harumasa had never attacked Wise before.
"Prince, please step back. Let us handle this.", Lycaon stood in front of Wise and Rina also stood beside him. Although the two of them did not have much magic power, it was enough to support them in their fight.
"Lycaon... Be gentle, Harumasa....", Wise clenched his fists, his eyes filled with heartache as he looked at Harumasa, "He doesn't know we're here... He can't hear, nor can he see..."
Lycaon nodded, calmly reassuring Wise, "Please rest assured, Prince, we will stop Harumasa without hurting him."
With Lycaon's assurance, Wise was relieved to step back and let the high-level mages protect him. Lycaon and Rina quickly rushed towards Harumasa. They were blessed with speed, protection, and enhancement by the high-level mages. With the fighting ability of the two of them, they easily made Harumasa not know which direction to attack. Since Harumasa had lost his sight and hearing, he could only rely on his sense of magic to determine who was approaching. That was why Wise, who had magic power, was attacked.
But Lycaon and Rina's magic power was not much, not to mention that they moved at a fast speed, making Harumasa unable to accurately determine their location. He attacked randomly, almost choosing to use his intuition to guess. And it was terrifyingly accurate. Harumasa almost hit Rina, which surprised her and made her not expect his intuition to be this good.
Lycaon knew that prolonging the attack would not be beneficial for either side, so he immediately took advantage of Harumasa's momentary opening to attack. He rushed forward, hitting Harumasa hard on the back of the neck. He immediately fell forward, fainted, and was caught by Lycaon. Even though he was unconscious, Harumasa started to convulse and cough. But Lycaon felt strange, why couldn't he hear Harumasa's voice. He lightly touched Harumasa's cheek, cold, pale, sticky with sweat and dirt.
"Where is the healer? I need help!"
Lycaon called out loudly, one of the high-level mages immediately flew over, hurriedly used healing magic and removed the magic others used on Harumasa.
Only then could they clearly hear Harumasa's painful cough and labored breathing. It was clear that he was sick and couldn't breathe. This kind of illness was almost impossible to cure with magic and could only be relieved with medicine. The healer used magic, gathering a lot of oxygen and gathering it near Harumasa's nose and mouth so that he could breathe a little. Anyway, the area was currently on fire, the oxygen level was low, and it was not an ideal environment for someone with weak lungs like Harumasa.
"Immediately activate the formation, let's return to the palace."
Lycaon easily picked up Harumasa, walking slowly so that the healing mage could keep up with them. Lycaon felt that Harumasa was quite cold, even though he was wearing a royal robe, his body was still extremely cold. The chief butler thought for a moment and then used his tail to cover Harumasa. The temperature of his tail could help warm Harumasa up.
They quickly returned to the palace and brought Harumasa to his room. Because there were enough herbs there to treat his condition.
Lycaon put Harumasa on the bed, intending to go help the others find medicine for Harumasa, but suddenly he felt his tail being grabbed by someone. It turned out that the senior butler was hugging his tail, probably because it was warm and soft. Although Harumasa did not hug him tightly, Lycaon could not bear to pull his tail away. He stood beside Harumasa's bed, allowing him to hug his tail to keep warm.
The royal physicians were also called in to help Harumasa get through this illness. The room was not large, so those who could not help much stood outside, including Wise. The prince had a lot of knowledge, but when it came to Harumasa's illness, he had absolutely no idea how to help Harumasa get through it.
Wise could only stand outside and watch the royal physicians work, everyone was busy. Someone brought in a bucket and placed it beside the bed. Wise noticed the bucket and curiously looked into the room. Wise saw someone lift Harumasa's head up, tilt his head slightly, and place the bucket right underneath.
Harumasa's shoulders shook and he started to vomit. It was blood. There was so much of it, Wise was afraid that Harumasa would vomit blood to death.
"Your Highness, it's best if you don't look anymore. Leave this to the royal physicians and Lycaon.", Rina suggested, she knew Wise would blame himself a lot after this. The more Wise looked at Harumasa in that state, the more tormented and heartbroken he would become.
"I'm fine, Rina... I don't want to leave right when Harumasa is in pain."
Wise refused to leave, he still stood there, watching the royal physicians work. They were all trying to save Harumasa's life. At times like this, Wise felt extremely useless. Harumasa was his friend since they were young, yet at the moment Harumasa was in the most pain, he couldn't help at all.
Wise stood rooted to the spot, not moving even a step, his eyes fixed on the person lying on the bed.
The tense situation lasted for a few hours before Harumasa could breathe a little more steadily, although he was still a bit weak. He was still a little feverish, coughing occasionally, but he had passed the stage of being sick. But it seemed that Lycaon had to sit there to keep watch because Harumasa was still rubbing his face against Lycaon's tail. He knew Harumasa liked cats, although he himself wasn't a cat thiren, but at least his tail was similar, although a bit big. Harumasa had also said that he liked Lycaon's tail, so maybe it would have a comforting effect on him.
"Prince, Harumasa is fine now. You can go back and rest.", Lycaon softly said to Wise, while sitting with his arms crossed, leaning back in his chair.
"I want to stand here for a while longer.", Wise still looked at Harumasa, not daring to touch him for fear of waking him up. Harumasa needed to rest.
"...okay. You have class tomorrow morning, don't sleep too late, it'll make you tired."
Wise just nodded at Lycaon's instructions and stood there silently. He stood there for a long time before leaving Harumasa and Lycaon to rest.
It was a quiet night after such a noisy event. Wise only hoped that Harumasa would recover soon, return to work and stay by his side.
Although it wasn't the first time Harumasa wasn't in Wise's room to blow out the candle, it was the first time he felt guilty for Harumasa's absence.
Wise closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep.
It felt lonely and boring.